Dryad Grove's Journal

A dream.
Ok, this dream happened yesterday morning. I've always had highly detailed, technicolor dreams that play like movies...

I'm a hunter, male, human, I think. My partner, another hunter, is a female human-sized ant. She looks like one of the 3D ants in A Bug's Life. She's sort of light metallic blue. She wears a bandoleer with ammo (not bullets-- more like darts) and weapons, as well as a belt with a machete.
I'm also wearing a machete and other things I'm peripherally aware of, hanging from my belt.
We're hunting for some people, (and I feel a great deal of urgency to find them) who may have been taken by an enemy group of some sort. We know if we don't find them quickly, they'll be killed.
We are very grim, as we know we probably are too late.
We're traveling (mostly running or jogging) beside and above a very large raging river, bordered by a forest. It's churning white-water and makes a loud roar, so we have to shout to each other to be heard.
We're running alongside the river on a rocky surface that has been badly eroded by the river for eons. The rock is light-colored, like limestone and is treacherous, crumbling often beneath our feet as we move.
(My ant companion runs upright on her two hind legs.)
Many times we come upon cracks and crevices in the rock that open over a long drop to water below, which has eroded its way into the rock. Other times the rock gives way and we must help each other to keep from falling through. The rock is riddled with caves just beneath the surface.
Eventually my ant companion falls through the rotten rock into a crevasse several feet below.
It takes me a while to climb down to her. When I reach the place she landed, she has moved. I don't see her, so I continue along a passage. It's a cave carved by water, but while it's wet there, it's not flooded at the moment.
As I search for her, I hear my companion's voice ahead in the cave, then suddenly I'm attacked by two creatures I can't see well enough to make out their shapes.
I fight them with my machete, and eventually kill them. (I wield the machete left-handed.)
I look down the passage toward the direction I last heard my partner and see light filtering down from gaps in the rock above. In the light, I see my companion's body, lying on the floor of the cave. I see no sign of our attackers and presume the rest have fled.
I go to her, and determine that she is dead.
I'm horrified and devastated by the loss but I don't spend anytime grieving. I simply pick her body up, and carry her over my shoulder back up to the place I climbed down into the crevice before.
At this point, I realize I can not continue hunting for the people we had been looking for; that they must be dead by now.
My mood is raggedly grim. I know my duty now... I must return my companion to the "hive". (The hive is her home, and my adopted culture.)
I labor to carry the dead ant (she weighs nearly as much as an adult human) all the long way beside the river and through the forest back to the hive.
When I reach it, it looks like a fortress outside, towering smooth black walls, with a huge double set of gates. Far above, I see sentries patrolling.
Several hundred yards from the gates, I stop at the edge of the forest and lay my partner's body gently down on the ground.
There is one last thing I must do before I enter the city. I'm horrified, but determined. It's my duty to butcher her. This is an act of respect for her family, I know. It's their custom. I must perform my duty. She was my partner, and I knew her family well and care deeply for them.
By their custom, they must not see her face in death, so I know I must cut off my companion's head. It's horrible, but I know I must do this.
I hesitate for many long seconds, psyching myself to do this final task for her. I say a prayer in my companion's language, then, using my machete, I cut her head off. I also cut her body in half, at the thorax, and remove the lowest extremities of her six legs. The head and legs I leave in the forest. They are not a part of the ritual of "Returning the body to the hive", that will insure that my companion's spirit will continue in her race.
When my butchery is done, and with tears streaming down my face, I lift the two remaining portions of my companion's body and carry them toward the gates of the city.
I know as I approach the gates that once inside I will take my slain companion's body to her family and that they, and all her friends as well as myself, will take part in the ritual of "Returning to the hive", in which we will all eat my companion's remains.

At this point I woke up.
I had only had about 4 1/2 hours of sleep, but the dream was so disturbing I couldn't go back to sleep.
So. Now you have it. :)
This is NOT the most bizarre dream I've ever had. Maybe someday I'll share some of them too.

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